"BORDERLAND"

"My message to you is: No longer consent to listen without protest to the perversion of truth." Selected Messages Book 1, Pg. 196

There is something so attractive to humanity in the theories and fantasies of spiritism. Even our first mother, before she fell, listened spell-bound as Satan presented the first scientific lecture on spiritualism.

He laid the groundwork in what could be called ‘Spiritualism 101’ for all the scientific, philosophic and religious teachers that have poured out their God-defying falsehoods like open sewers into the world ever since.

What were his first assertions? To get deeper insight, go to Spiritual Gifts and Patriarchs and Prophets, and read carefully and prayerfully the accounts of the fall.

But here we will briefly look at his foundation presentation and notice the items. Remember all deceptions since that time fall into one of these first categories— understand this and you will spot erroneous theories you might otherwise be fooled by.

His first words were "Yea, hath God said?"

Here we have the foundation for all the ‘Higher Criticism’ of the Bible and the writings of the prophets. Did God really say that? Did He really mean it in that way? Couldn’t it be interpreted differently? Perhaps, you are not understanding it in quite the way God meant it? Perhaps, God really does not have your best interests at heart at all! Perhaps there really is no personal God anyway, instead just a nameless-faceless, all-pervading intelligence that keeps everything going.

Modernly we hear it in the world around us and even from the pulpits of our churches; "We don’t have the original autographs". "These new versions based on the work of those wonderful Catholic scholars, (who brought us the bloody Dark Ages) are far superior to the old, tested and tried work of the true ‘church in the wilderness’ and those who brought about the Reformation." "You are putting too much emphasis on a text." "We can’t really know for sure the will of God in these days. One guess is as good as another." "We have the highly educated doctors of science these days to really upon." "These ideas were OK for the long past, but now we have so much better understanding, we can rise above the Word of God and we don’t need the counsel of a stuffy old-fashioned woman any more either!" "Come-on, don’t be ridiculous, grow up! Nobody believes that stuff any more!"

Brothers and sisters, DOES God mean what He says? You must answer this for yourself and you must ponder your answer and see if you REALLY believe that! What you decide in your heart of hearts regarding this one statement will change your destiny—forever.

Satan then proceeded to the second ‘Law’ of spiritualism, which says:

"Ye shall not surely die."

In this he proposed to answer his first statement in the negative, "No, you can’t put any stock in what God says or seems to say."

"On the contrary, you really are immortal, you can’t die! Now isn’t that a wonderful bit of knowledge to ponder. Just think about it, you don’t have to live in fear, you can’t die anyway, so you just do as your ‘higher self’ indicates. Get rid of this fear of the threatenings of God that interferes with your spiritual progress!"

So here was launched the program that led to all the Heathen and Pagan religions, with their blood river of countless sacrifices, animal and human, to appease the dead, or the god’s of various hells, where the dead were said to be suffering. Here was the foundation for so much human effort and means wasted to provide legacies for dead ancestors, while living descendants often suffered privation and want.

This immortality of the soul and all its trimmings, learned at the skirts of the Great Mother Whore, has been brought into the modern religions of today and forms the basis of the whole frog invasion of the last days of this earth’s history.

"The popular ministry cannot successfully resist spiritualism. They have nothing wherewith to shield their flocks from its baleful influence. Much of the sad result of spiritualism will rest upon ministers of this age; for they have trampled the truth under their feet, and in its stead have preferred fables. The sermon which Satan preached to Eve upon the immortality of the soul--"Ye shall not surely die"--they have reiterated from the pulpit; and the people receive it as pure Bible truth. It is the foundation of spiritualism." 1 Testimonies, pg. 344

It is not easy for Humans to comprehend that they will die; this is a fact that we have to receive by faith, because even though we see death and feel its dreadful cruelty in our lives as it snatches dear ones from our bosoms, our minds are not able to truly conceive of total death. Why? Because it was never God’s will that any of His creatures die!

Those who try to tell people these days, that death is something to be celebrated, that it is only the doorway to a higher plain of existence and is our friend, are flying in the face of the clearest statements from the Word of God which tell us that Death is an ENEMY that will one day be brought to an end.

Now Satan really gets creative:

"For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

First he states that what he is telling her is really the inner secrets of the mind of God, and they are really things that God doesn’t want her to know about, but he, the clever serpent, is giving her this inside knowledge. Then he proceeds with the world’s first discourse about the gnosis, the hidden knowledge, the enlightenment, the opening of the inner eye! No Pagan or New Age philosophy exists that does not believe in this concept; that there is secret knowledge, which raises its possessor far above his fellow beings in ability and wisdom. It is this appeal to selfish pride that draws so many into the snares of spiritualism.

Because people as a whole do tend to believe this, it leads them to look to Gurus, Spiritual Masters, and Psychics and spiritist healers, (especially if they come from some mystical, far away country) and scientists and doctors and theologians with lots of important sounding titles; as being of higher authority than the plain Word of God and use their sayings as counsel for their lives rather than the simple ‘Thus saith the Lord.’

Now Satan gives Eve the foundation of modern evolution; "Ye shall be as gods– you are going to evolve Eve, you will progress to higher and higher plains and will one day reign with God Himself." Satan offers her the aim of his own heart—to rise up to the level of God, and snatch Him from His throne. He continues;—"Knowing good and evil."

In other words, you will direct your own course; you will decide for yourself what is right and wrong! You have to throw of the shackles of this God-dependency of yours and learn for yourself. You cannot progress to higher knowledge as long as you are letting someone else make your decisions for you."

Now, Eve was not like us, Satan only needed to state these simple sentences to her and her mind immediately grasped all the nuances and possibilities in what he was telling her. These days Satan has to write whole books to get across to us modern folk what he was able to convey to Eve in a sentence or two.

God has not left us to drown in the floods of spiritist philosophy poured out on the earth however; in the volumous writings of the Spirit of Prophecy; He has sought to shield us from deception and has given us inside knowledge into the workings of Satan’s mind. Let’s look at this statement that gives us spiritualism’s claims in a nut-shell:

"Spiritualism asserts that men are unfallen demigods; that "each mind will judge itself;" that "true knowledge places men above all law;" that "all sins committed are innocent;" for "whatever is, is right," and "God doth not condemn." The basest of human beings it represents as in heaven, and highly exalted there. Thus it declares to all men, "It matters not what you do; live as you please, heaven is your home." Multitudes are thus led to believe that desire is the highest law, that license is liberty, and that man is accountable only to himself." Education, pgs. 227,228

Let’s list these and look at them one by one:

1. "Spiritualism asserts that men are unfallen demigods";

The topic of sin and sinners is very unpopular these days, both in the world and in the church. The pride of man seems to increase in exact proportion to the abounding iniquity. And this idea of the ‘godship of man’ in spiritualistic philosophies such as evolution etc. leads to man taking upon himself to play God to just the degree his sphere of power allows him to. For some it is only by being a tyrant to his family for others it allows them to destroy whole populations of ‘inferiors’.

2. "Each mind will judge itself;" "God does not judge"

Anyone seeking to point the path to righteousness and warn against the inroads and dangers of sin is quickly informed he is being ‘judgmental’ and ‘critical’.

There is an interesting phenomena that Satan has cooked up to water-down the powerful message of final judgement that is designed to awaken a world from it’s death-stupor; it is the claim that the Investigative Judgment is really GOD being judged by the Universe and His created beings.

NOW, I KNOW there is an aspect of God proving His own government to be just
and fair in the whole Great Controversy between Christ and Satan; HOWEVER,
the Investigative Judgment is NOT that—the Bible says 'the time of the dead
that THEY should be judged’ (Revelation 11:18), and the living are judged in the 'valley of decision' by the choices they make in the final test of authority outlined in the Third Angel’s Message. "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision." Joel 3:14

Any proving of the fairness of God is done in the 1,000 years judgment of the lost—before they are destroyed, the books are examined until all loyal beings are satisfied that there is total justice in their being destroyed. At the time of the executive judgment all knees will bow and every tongue confess that God is fair and just.

When we tell people that, yes, there is a judgment going on, but we don't have to
worry about it, it doesn’t involve God’s professed people, because it is really just God Himself being judged—it completely destroys the power of the 3 angels' messages to awaken men from fatal slumber; even though we are claiming to preach them!!

Remember, we are told it is the Temple that is being measured—and the Worshipers—not God! "Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein." Revelation 11:1. The courtyard is left out—the wicked world is not being measured here, only those who have professed at some time to be God’s people.

We need to come to grips with the fact that the message the ‘hour of His judgement is come’ is referring to God as the Judge—not the judged. This is the time referred to in the parable when the King comes in to see the wedding guests—it wasn’t the King who got examined!

It is a sobering thought to realize you are being judged and eternal life or death rests on your living a life, through the power of the indwelling Christ that corresponds to your claim to salvation through having entered into a covenant relation with Christ; but the Bible and SOP tell us this is so.

"The cases of all are pending in the heavenly sanctuary. Day by day angels of God are watching the development of character, and weighing moral worth. In the judgement the question will not be, What profession did you make? but, What have you done for Me? What fruit have you borne to My glory? Now is the time to prepare for the coming of the King." The Signs of the Times 04-12-05

"As a people we are to prepare the way of the Lord. Every iota of ability God has given us must be put to use in preparing the people after God's fashion, after his spiritual mold, to stand in this great day of God's preparation; and the serious question may be awakened in world-loving hearts, "What is eternity to us? How will my case stand in the investigative judgement? What will be my lot and place?" …there are many who have no intelligent hope, and are running great risk in practising the very things which Jesus has taught that they should not do, in eating, drinking, and dressing, binding themselves up with the world in a variety of ways. They have yet to learn the serious lessons so essential to growth in spirituality, to come out from the world and be separate. … the evidence of discipleship--Christ's likeness in self-denial and cross-bearing--is not discernible by the world or by the universe of heaven." Special Testimonies on Education pg. 85

In other words, They have not on the wedding garment.

3. "True knowledge places men above all law;"

Satan’s war from before the world existed, had been to do away with God’s moral law. He is still active teaching people that while moral laws may have been good for the infancy of the race (or the church) we no longer need them as we have such great knowledge and have out-grown such infantisms.

4. "All sins committed are innocent;"

Psychology tells us that all people always perform to the very best that they understand to be right. This also gives us the idea that while something may be wrong for you, the same thing may be fine for me as I see it differently. After all, we each have to decide for our own selves what we think is right for us.

No Ultimate Authority—the very idea of an absolute authority, a clear standard of right and wrong, sends modern man into raging temper tantrums.

5. "Whatever is, is right,"

Here we find those in the world and spiritism who claim that good and evil must exist in balance and some great overall pantheistic intelligence guides the universe so that whatever happens is just what needs to happen. So when I feel the urge to go over and rape my neighbour’s wife or kill somebody, this is OK because some superior intelligence sees that this is best.

In the church we see this as ‘Don’t point out anyone’s sins, even in the kindest way, because God will teach them himself if He wants them to know that.’ Also, ‘Don’t do anything to try and warn about the mistakes and sins of the churches leaders, and do not vote or act to remove them from office for their sins, because God will take care of that in His own good time. After all, He is God and can do as He pleases.’ Sorry, the Bible does not hold out any such sophisms. God does not step in and do what he has placed the responsibility on us to do. If we don’t fight against the inroads of wickedness in our families and churches, we are judged as partakers in that wickedness.

6. "God doth not condemn."

We have among us the ‘God does not kill’ philosophy. This is the same as saying God is a liar and reflects Satan’s first premise, "Yea, Hath God said?" The world is looking on God as a jolly Santa, that promotes fun and frolic and indulgence and is so loving, that you never have to worry about being lost. His threatenings are just to keep us in line. People even make the blasphemous statement, ‘Let’s face it, God is crazy about us!’

Brothers and sisters, while it is true that God loves each one of us, this will not save us from being destroyed, if we fail to take hold of the provisions of salvation in God’s chosen way. The same God that allowed the fury of wrath against sin to fall on His innocent Son, to open a way of escape for you and me, will certainly wipe from His Universe those who despise His covenant and refuse to be redeemed.

7. "It matters not what you do; live as you please, heaven is your home."

Spiritualism has a watered-down nirvana, a nebulous hereafter that it promises to its followers assuring them of their immortal future. The wickedest of human beings it represents as in heaven, and highly exalted there. Thus it declares to all men, "It matters not what you do; live as you please, heaven is your home."

Surely we don’t have this in the church also?—I regret to say yes, we have people preaching week after week, that once your name is on the church books and as long as you support and obey the leadership, you have no worries; that the conference church is the ‘Ark’ and everyone in it is assured of eternal life for all are under the blood and our salvation was all finished at the cross.

We have those who are preaching that the garment of Christ’s righteousness covers all our sin, past, present and future, even those that are unconfessed and unforsaken! And although we will be sinning until Jesus returns and translates us, we don’t need to worry about it, as Jesus will change it then.

Many among us are teaching that to in any way attempt, even by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit and the righteousness of Christ, to overcome sin in the life, is legalism and the Mark of the Beast!

People talk about living ‘vibrant Christian lives’ and by this they mean not letting standards crimp their style as they indulge all the fashionable and socially polite sinful-pleasures the world has to offer.

Brothers and sisters, Our God is a consuming fire! He will destroy sin! He is working right now to remove sin from our lives through the ministry of Jesus in the Most Holy Place. All power that we need is available to us now to have all sin eradicated from our lives, but God does not do this without our co-operation. If we cling to sin and refuse to give it up, we WILL sin until Jesus comes and we WILL be consumed by the fire of His presence.

8. "Desire is the highest law,"

Never before has such a generation of people been so tuned into—‘Doing your own thing,’ ‘Indulge your deepest desires’, ‘Pamper yourself, you deserve it,’ ‘Take yourself out for a treat’, ‘Don’t let your obligations to others interfere in your life’, ‘You have to be free to live your own life’.

This self-indulgence mentality is behind many divorces and the neglect of God-given responsibility to many family members. But over the decadent clamour, the voice of God is still sounding like a tolling bell; "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me."

Remember, it was pride and a high ‘self-esteem’ that changed the highest angel into the evil devil.

9. "That license is liberty,"

The philosophy of today tells us that we should never seek to teach or control the lives of our children, they are to be left to chose their own way because each person has an inside link to all the knowledge of the universe and knows what way is best for himself.

Pray tell, then why does the Bible emphasize to us to ‘train up our children’ in the right way? Why did it not say, ‘Let them be and they will grow up in the right way?’

Another variance of this idea are those who will tell you, "I know I am OK with God in what I am doing, because if He didn’t want me to do this, He would stop me, the fact that He blesses me means I am just fine the way I am, and I don’t need anybody to tell me differently."

"Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Ecclesiastes 8:11

10. "Man is accountable only to himself."

Much the same as above but this is the concept that causes wordings to scoff at the idea of Judgement Day and the church, while it does not go quite so far as to scoff at judgement, reasons it all away in flowery fantasy. (See #2)

Brothers and sisters, read over the quote from the book Education above and ponder it carefully, then when you hear discourses in which you recognise any of these subtle misleading sophistries, protest if possible, but get out of there quickly and take your family with you. The subtleties of spiritualism quickly put the spiritual mind to sleep and to linger on enchanted ground can prove fatal.